Claude Monet

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A picture of himself painted by Claude Monet.

Claude Monet was a French painter and artist.

He was born in Paris, France on November 14 1840. His father wanted him to help run the family's grocery business, but Monet wanted to be an artist. When he was young he met the painter Eugène Boudin who taught him to use oil paints, and encouraged him to paint out of doors.

Monet joined the French army in Algeria for two years from 1860-1862. When he became ill he left the army to study art at university. He did not like the way art was taught, and joined the painter Charles Gleyre in his studio. He met other artists here, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. They shared their ideas about painting.

Impression, Sunrise painted in 1873

In 1866 Monet had a child with Camille Doncieux, who had been his model. They married in 1870. In 1870 he moved to England to escape the Franco-Prussian War, and in 1871 he moved to Argenteuil near Paris where he painted some of his most famous pictures. In 1873 he painted Impression, Sunrise, showing the sea at Le Havre. When this picture was shown in 1874 one critic took its title and called the group of artists "Impressionists". He intended to make fun of the artists, but the name has stuck and this is what people today call this style of painting.

In 1879 Camille died of tuberculosis. Alice Hoschedé decided to help Monet by taking care of his children as well as her own. In 1883 they moved to a house in Giverny where Monet planted a large garden. Monet married Alice in 1892.

Waterlilies, painted by Monet in his garden at Giverny in 1899.

Monet found that his garden inspired him to paint pictures of it, particularly the water lilies. Alice died in 1911, and his son Jean was killed in World War I in 1914. In 1923 he had an operation for cataracts in his eyes, and he died on December 5, 1926.

Monet used broad brush strokes to build up his pictures, and painted quite quickly to try and get the idea of the light he could see into his paintings. If you go very close to one of his pictures it is hard to see what it shows, but if you stand back everything becomes clear.

His later paintings include series, in which he paints the same subject in different light. For example he painted a series of pictures of haystacks in a field, and another series of pictures of the west front of Rouen Cathedral.